


Exchange Programme

by MonkeyBard



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-26 03:29:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19759690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonkeyBard/pseuds/MonkeyBard
Summary: A case brings Lestrade to Edinburgh. Lestrade brings John and Sherlock.





	Exchange Programme

**Author's Note:**

> JWP #10: Words and Phrases: Use at least three of the following words and phrases in your work today. Use all of them, and you’re halfway to the All the Words bonus point for this year.  
> 1\. Dreams  
> 2\. Red sky at night shepherds delight  
> 3\. Summer time and the living is easy  
> 4\. An unexpected visitor  
> 5\. Flight  
> 6\. Flisk  
> 7\. Sophism  
> 8\. Amalgamate  
> 9\. Paroxysm  
> 10\. Lacuna  
> 11\. Apposite  
> A/N: Not my best work, but I got them all in. *sigh*

“In your dreams!” exclaimed Marquardson. “The man’s a flight risk. We’re not letting him out of our sight. I don’t care who you think he might lead us to.”  
  
“He wouldn’t _be_ out of our sight,” Sherlock snapped before Lestrade could answer more pleasantly. “That’s the point.”  
  
“So _you_ say,” she shot back. “But he’s bloody slippery. He’s gotten away from us before and it took far too long recapture the bastard.”  
  
Marquardson glared pointedly at all three men. Lestrade was there at her request as he was familiar with the case history, but John and Sherlock were unexpected visitors. “You’re here because Greg thinks you can help. That doesn’t mean I’m caving to one of your flisks, brilliant or not, without a damned good explanation why I should.” She pointed at Sherlock and John. “You two are on notice, and you—” She rounded on Greg. “You’ll be sleeping on my couch if you don’t watch yourself.”  
  
“The lacuna between the criminal’s escape and eventual recapture was due to your people’s ineptitude, not his capabilities.”  
  
“Sherlock, stop talking,” advised John. Marqaurdson looked like she was about to go into a paroxysm of fury. The last thing they needed was to alienate the lead DI on the case—particularly when she was Lestrade’s significant other.  
  
“John, she—”  
  
“Stop talking.”  
  
“John—”  
  
“Stop. Talking.”  
  
Sherlock clamped down on his next protest and John wondered how long the reprieve would last.  
  
Marquardson looked at Lestrade, ignoring Sherlock as much as she could in the small space of her office. “All right. I’m willing to include them in our departments’ combined efforts, since you brought them along.” She called up files on her computer and turned the screen so the others could see. “We’ve amalgamated all the data from the previous arrest with what we’ve gathered since then. Here’s the latest statement from the defendant.”  
  
“Sophism,” said Sherlock after barely a glance at it.  
  
Lestrade shot him an annoyed look. “You might let me get a single word in edgewise seeing as I’m the professional.”  
  
“Look at it.” Sherlock gestured broadly at the screen. “You’ll find my conclusion apposite once your inferior brain has had sufficient time to examine the data. Having had the statement longer, I’m surprised DI Marquardson hasn’t recognised the fallaciousness of it already herself.”  
  
“Is that meant to be a compliment or an insult?” she demanded angrily.  
  
“Don’t answer,” snarled John, eyes staring daggers at his partner. He was _that close_ to grabbing Sherlock and muttering “Red sky at night” in his ear. But would Sherlock actually complete it with “shepherd’s delight” in the circumstances? It was their agreed upon code phrase that meant ‘silence at all costs’. Somehow, John doubted Sherlock would accept that the occasion warranted such extremity.  
  
Lestrade ignored the exchange. “It’s not just sophism. It’s code.”  
  
Sherlock looked stunned. “What?”  
  
“Look at the fourth word of each sentence in the fourth paragraph.”  
  
“Let me see.” John pushed in between them and peered at the screen. “Summer. Time. And. The. Living. Is. Easy.” He glanced at the others. “That’s code?”  
  
Begrudging, Sherlock leaned in over John’s shoulder to look at the defendant’s statement more closely. “The words are too precisely placed not to be.”  
  
“Yeah, but ‘and’, ‘the’, ‘is’? Come on. What’s it code for?”  
  
Marqaurdson reclaimed her monitor from the group. “I’m with John. Bit of a stretch isn’t it? Sorry, Greg.”  
  
Lestrade shrugged. “I get it.”  
  
“Who has access to this statement?” asked Sherlock.  
  
“Any officers working on the case. Defence attorney. Prosecutor.”  
  
“We find out who this message was meant for, and we find his accomplice.”  
  
“You what?”  
  
“He escaped before. It was an inside job. This message is code meant to set up another attempt. Presumably on the fourth of the month.”  
  
Marquardson looked at Lestrade again. “He’s always like this, isn’t he?”  
  
“Basically,” agreed Lestrade. “And he’s usually right.”  
  
She sighed, a wordless admission of defeat. “All right. They can stay. And you, Sherlock, are buying me a bottle of top-shelf whisky when this is over because I am certain I’m going to have earned it for putting up with you.”  
  
John cut off Sherlock’s impending protest with another razor look. He turned to Marquardson and nodded. “That’s more than fair.”


End file.
